ANOTHER BOMB ATTACK IN BEIRUT

I've just come back from the place where a bomb exploded, on Friday morning. Pretty messy. According to officials 6 dead, although I only arrived at the scene around 40 minutes after the attack took place and all victims were already taken away by ambulances. Due to an enormous traffic mess, I could not reach the place quicker.

At the scene: Around 30 cars destroyed - right under and next to a flyover where the main Hazmiye highway runs. For the moment, highway is sealed off by the cops, but the section of this main Beirut highway did not collapse.

As usual - one or two cars fully destroyed (probably the targeted vehicle and the car carrying the bomb). Lots of other vehicles around the place also very much damaged and or burnt out.

Drama at the scene as people who were looking for relatives, started screaming and crying. One man had to be calmed down by five soldiers, another woman fainted.

As I'm not home yet, I can't upload any pics or the little video i shot. This i'll do later today, although its nothing special.

At the moment: Army and police are setting up checkpoints all around the city. Police vehicles drive around with loud screaming cops in it using megaphones to order people not to park their cars on main roads.

Yesterday, there was a transport strike which got ugly as Hezbollah supporters started throwing rocks at the army and enjoyed harassing journalists (like harryzzz!). Today a car bomb. For Sunday and Monday further protests announced by the opposition....what a mess here.

Here a accurate story with more details on todays attack from the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk):

At least six people have been killed in a powerful car bombing in an eastern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

A senior member of the police intelligence unit and another officer were among the dead, police say.

Lebanese TV footage of Hazmieh, a mainly Christian suburb in eastern Beirut, showed a blackened crater and many tangled and burning cars.

Beirut has witnessed a string of bomb attacks since 2004, many targeting members of the anti-Syrian movement.

The dead police official, Wissam Eid, was a technical expert in the Internal Security Forces who had been investigating the past bombings, local media said.

Main route

TV pictures showed what appeared to be the aftermath of a large blast causing damage over a considerable area at a junction in east Beirut.

Emergency workers were filmed putting out fierce fires in vehicles at junction near one of the main highways through the capital.

The blast comes at a time of political crisis in Lebanon between rival pro-Syrian and pro-Western parties which has prevent the election of a president for more than two months.

Lebanon's western-backed government says the bombings are a message from Syria, although Damascus denies it and condemns the killing.

The country has also been rocked by an uprising by Islamist militants in the north and attacks on UN peacekeepers in the south.

Ten days ago, a car bomb damaged a US diplomatic car in eastern Beirut, killing at least three bystanders, and last month the army's chief of operations was assassinated by similar means.


Harald Doornbos